Reply to Comparative Risk-Adjusted Mortality Outcomes After Primary Surgery, Radiotherapy, or Androgen-Deprivation Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer

摘要

Dr. Froehner suggests our article1 claimed unmeasured confounding is not a partial explanation for the differences observed among treatment modalities. In fact, we explicitly considered that possibility, devoting multiple sensitivity analyses and a significant portion of the discussion to this very question. The question is not whether there is unmeasured confounding underlying the analy-sisAwe will never know for sure but must assume this possibility. The question is whether unmeasured confounding can explain a 2-fold difference in mortality between radiation and surgery and a 3-fold difference between androgen deprivation and surgery.